A Bombardier Learjet 60 midsize plane yesterday set a speed record in its class, flying Jeddah-Dubai in an hour and 59 minutes.
Fdration Aronautique Internationale (FAI) had fully sanctioned the flight.
Air traffic controllers in Jeddah and Dubai clocked the arrival time, which they will submit to the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), according to official procedure, in order to validate the record flight. Once validated, the NAA will submit the record to the FAI in Paris, France, for ratification.
In service since July 2001, the Learjet 60, owned by ExecuJet Aviation Group, cruised at Mach 0.81 throughout the flight, until it clocked-in with the Dubai International Airport tower at 1349 hours, confirming its impressive time and speed.
The jet landed just in time to be part of a photograph with Learjet 60 XR Middle Eastern launch customer Saudi businessman Ghassan Tabbah Shalabi, President of Inma Arabia Investment in Dubai.
This is the second Learjet 60 record in just over four months. On September 21, another jet flew Cape TownJohannesburg round trip in two hours and 59 minutes.
To date, the high performance jet has accumulated 13 world speed records over nine routes in five countries.
"The jet performed superbly as expected," said captain James Sizemore of ExecuJet Middle East.
"We took off from Jeddah at 10, local time, and quick ly climbed to 41,000 feet (12,497 metres) to avoid turbulence. The aircraft handled beautifully and the time easily establishes a new benchmark for this trip."
By Emirates Today Staff
© Emirates Today 2007
